“We are waiting on table and chairs,” she said. Ahlberg said for the moment she does not need them because the eight students in the charter school, from kindergarten to seventh grade, are at home being taught by their parents in a home-school environment.

Birchwood’s charter school, said Ahlberg, merges the best of home-schooling and public education. Most of the time the students are home-taught using ABEKA curriculum. They go to the classroom for scheduled activities, lessons in the classroom, and tutoring.

Even though the students in the new charter school are mostly home-schooled, because they are using district-purchased curriculum and participate in classroom activity, they are registered students and are able to participate in all available sports and extra-curriculum activities.